Made largely in the village of Fuentaduena, 40 miles from Madrid on the Valencia road, in the front lines and in Madrid itself. The story centres around the necessity for keeping the road to Madrid open, and the life of the villagers of Fuentaduena who were working against time and in spite of bombing from the air, to complete and irrigation channel which would bring water to their fields and enable them to grow food for the besieged city of Madrid. Commentary and narration by Ernest Hemmingway; photography by John Ferno and Joris Ivens; editing by Helen van Donen; musical arrangement from Spanish folk tunes by Marc Blitzstein and Virgil Thomson; production committee - Archibald MacLeish, Lillian Hellman and John dos Passos.